Port Chester-Rye Brook library patrons lose crucial hours in cutback

Jun. 1, 2012

Eyvane Khalaf watches her children, Zena, 3, and Adam, 5, play games after gathering books Friday at the Port Chester-Rye Brook Public Library. The library is cutting its hours beginning today due to budget constraints. / Leah Rae/The Journal News

Written by

Leah Rae

The Port Chester-Rye Brook Public Library is closing early today as a scaled-back schedule takes effect.

The doors will be locked at noon instead of 5 p.m., and the objections won’t just come from book borrowers or patrons who rely on the Internet access, study space and English lessons. New York sets a minimum number of weekly hours for libraries, based on population, and Port Chester is about to fall below its 55-hour quota.

This cost-cutting move is more bad news for Port Chester at a time the school system is eliminating its reading specialists — 14 teaching positions — in an effort to meet the state property-tax cap.

“I’m frustrated, I’m disappointed, I’m saddened by it,” library Executive Director Robin Lettieri said of the drop from 55 to 47 hours a week. “The community needs us more than ever.”

Falling below the requirement means Port Chester will have to seek a variance from the state, describing the problem and how to overcome it. Greenburgh obtained a variance last year. So did White Plains, though that library will restore its hours and meet the standard in July.

Only two other libraries in New York — upstate Dannemora and Fort Edward — failed to meet the required hours over the past year, the state Department of Education said.

“It’s a shame, because the people need it,” Edgar Muyuc, a 39-year-old Rye Brook resident and Westchester Community College student, said in Spanish at the Port Chester reference desk this week. He comes to the library to study, use the printer and get help with English.

Starting next week, Monday will be the only evening of operation, as the library closes Tuesday at 5 p.m. instead of 8 p.m. Storytimes, health seminars and English classes will happen less frequently in a village that includes a large population of working-class, immigrant families.

Roger Blake, 21, a trade-school student, said he will miss the evening hours. He lacks Internet access at home and rushes to get to the library after school and before the usual 5 p.m. closing.

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The Port Chester-Rye Brook library relies on the two villages for most of its $1.5 million budget, apart from fines and investment income. It has used private money, a bequest by the Lefferts family, for $2.6 million worth of renovations since 2008, including a new elevator, furnishings and a larger children’s section.

Under an agreement, Port Chester pays a 65 percent share of expenses to Rye Brook’s 35 percent. Port Chester kept funding flat this year for the third year in a row, while its smaller neighbor supplied a $12,500 boost.

Libraries tend to be better funded in places where residents vote directly on the budget, said Robert Hubsher, executive director of the Ramapo Catskill Library System, which covers Rockland County. Most of Rockland’s libraries — 12 of 17 — put their budgets up for a public vote. In Westchester, just eight of 38 libraries hold budget referendums.

Ossining voters endorsed a library budget in May after the director warned that further cuts could force a shutdown, for lack of hours.

“People are generous when they approve of the services they’re getting,” Hubsher said. “When you’re buried in with the other municipal services, or county or state services, then it becomes this trade-off that you have to deal with.”

Libraries are set up under various governing structures. Even the ones that do not hold a budget vote have the option to do so, by following a process that involves state legislation and a local referendum.

Some libraries are considering that step, said Terry Kirchner, executive director of the Westchester Library System. The recession, together with the changing role of libraries, have prodded other changes. Some libraries are adjusting work schedules to allow for more varied operating hours.

“In some ways, it’s not the worst thing in the world that there are these discussions. It allows for things to be discovered,” Kirchner said.

WLS is sending libraries’ annual reports to Albany. Any library that doesn’t meet state standards will be notified, and that’s when Port Chester would need to apply for a variance.

“The goal is not to shut someone down,” Kirchner said, “but really to let it be known that this is an issue that needs to be addressed.”